“I don’t know what to do right now. Some day, I want to walk my girl down the aisle. That’s what keeps me fighting.”
– Jeff Austwick
By Mike Ramczyk
“It’s my day today, it’s so hard for me not to have her.”
Burlington resident Jeff Austwick, 46, fought back tears and became choked up when describing his situation with his 10-year-old daughter, Morgan, Tuesday.
Austwick is a single father, displaced by last week’s flood, and doesn’t have a place to take Morgan, a daughter whose custody he shares with his ex-wife Michelle.
“I’m out of sorts,” said Austwick, who was living on the second floor of a five-tenant residence at 326 N. Wisconsin St. that is still without water and electricity and has become a total loss.
The basement lost its outside wall and is open to the elements. A few feet away lies the now calm Fox River, which has lowered to 10 feet as of Tuesday but did plenty of damage July 12 and 13.
“Underneath the front porch is completely decimated, and the foundation is no longer safe,” said Austwick, who has been living at the Hampton Inn of Burlington since Thursday.
“My landlord can’t get assistance because it’s a rental property. All my food is gone, but I didn’t lose everything in my home. There are plenty of people that are worse off than me,” Austwick added.
Fighting for his health
Austwick suffers from multiple sclerosis, a disease that attacks the immune system and damages nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord.
He has trouble walking, and used a cane until recently. In the spring, Austwick received chemotherapy, which he said wiped out his immune system.
“I can no longer live on an upper level,” he said. “I’m looking for a two bedroom for my daughter and I. I was just starting to get better, but the stress from this ordeal makes me go backwards. I go to physical therapy and try to overcome, but my walking deteriorates, and my legs weaken throughout the day.”
“It’s hard to be a normal person, I have to hide. Now I have nowhere to hide.”
For Austwick, the water levels and damage became overwhelming last Wednesday morning.
Austwick and his daughter were joking around, thinking they had seen this before, but quickly a four-foot Virgin Mary statue in his backyard was covered up to the neck in water.
Less than an hour later, it was covered. Austwick made the decision to get out of there.
“It’s never been this bad,” he said. “I got my stuff in my truck and moved it a block away. The next day, I moved it even further away. It rose all the way to Jefferson Street.”
His garage had more than five feet of standing water before he knew it, and by the end of the day, the entire quarter block, from the river to Jefferson Street, was covered in water. Neighbors were using canoes to get around, and Austwick was forced to stay with relatives.
Cannella steps up
Austwick said he works in information technology for Cannella Response Television, and the owner, Frank Cannella, has helped him out with hotel accommodations.
“I can’t thank Cannella enough,” said Austwick, who has lived in Burlington seven years. “I don’t know how long I will be homeless. I want to fight for my daughter.”
“I just, I, I don’t know what to do right now. Some day, I want to walk my girl down the aisle. That’s what keeps me fighting.”
There is a light at the end of the tunnel.
Austwick has relatives to stay with in Fox Lake, Ill., and he can’t help but gush over the community support.
“This is a great community that comes together,” he said. “Everyone at Cannella has offered me help every day at work. Friends helped me pack up.”
“Later this week, I’m going to help a friend on the other side of the river. That’s what you do.”
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